We hope that everyone is experiencing a good 2019. It should be noted that many areas of technology, science, engineering, mathematical and business applications used in current products and services today, had their origins from the defence and space communities. The investment in these programs has resulted in commercial products and services that are being taken for granted today.

Some examples include, but are not limited to, areas such as wireless, audio and video technologies, the Internet, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), materials science, microelectronics, food sciences and many others too numerous to list. It is suggested that we revisit the history pertaining to the development of these technologies in order to understand and appreciate their original requirements and the how and why they developed to the states where they exist today.

Again, please take nothing in technology, science and engineering and related areas for granted. The question asked was for those of you who use calculators, what company produced the first scientific calculator that was commercially released into the marketplace? (Hint, it is a U.S. based company that over the years divided into two entities and both still thrive today. Another hint, the original company dates back to World War II. As a final hint, both the original company and its spinoff are listed on North American stock exchanges.).

The first electronic scientific calculator was produced by Hewlett Packard (HP), the HP23. The company developed from its first product which was an audio signal generator for the United States military. It continued to diversify its product lines that included computational, scientific, test and measurement, medical and other related products. Hewlett Packard severed most of the product lines except for computers and related products into Agilent and both companies continue to prosper today.

The first computer that I trained on in 1972 was designed and manufactured by HP, was the size of a full sized refrigerator, had about 4K of core memory and a small capacity hard drive. It was the HP2100A and was widely used for technical, engineering, scientific, mathematical and other applications in the early 1970s. For those of you who are interested, please check my IBO profile for my connection on LinkedIn. It will explain what my professional background is and provide answers to some of your queries.

Again, we wish everyone good success in 2019 and good health and success to everyone. We truly thank everyone again for your continued advice, feedback, assistance and support.